Investigation of Actions at Etti IV

[Terras Zordok]

"Our committee would like answers, Master Jedi..."

It wasn't everyday that Alena questioned actions of the Jedi Order. It wasn't everyday that annoyed members of the Military Oversight Committee contacted Jedi across the Galaxy via hologram, either.

"...as to why you dispatched a Republic expeditionary fleet along with at least a dozen Jedi to the planet of Etti IV in the Outer Rim? Perhaps the Jedi hold something against capitalism? Or you felt an urge to forcefully encorporate this Outer Rim planet to Republic territory?" the Kuati senator inquired, her voice transmitted through holograms to the Jedi at Etti IV .

"The Senate Military Oversight Committee has come to the conclusion of condemning actions taken at Etti IV, for the implementation of this unnecessary securtization logic on the planet and the people of Etti IV, as well as the imperialistic approach that has been taken there. This will also likely threaten our relations with the Mandalorians in the nearby area. Please explain your actions." the Kuati woman requested.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

@[member="Alena Beswin"]

Sarge was on Coruscant, having recently been promoted, and the last thing he wanted to hear about was an attempt trial of Jedi - because it wasn't every day that the Senate demanded answers of the Jedi.

But if there was one thing he was going to stop, it was transmissions from the Senate to the expeditionary fleets. If there were problems with the Jedi, you contacted the Council Members on Coruscant first.

They would then contact the other Jedi. This was how it had always been done. So, just like, he rerouted the transmission to the Communications room of the Coruscant Temple.

Instead of who she had been hoping to talk to, she wound up staring at the helmeted head of the Jedi known as Preacher.

"The Jedi do not answer to the Senate. We have, and always will be, an associate of the Republic. But if you had to know, there were reports of Sith incursion. This falls squarely in the jurisdiction of the Jedi.

If at any point you have an issue with the Jedi, bring the issue up with the local temple and the matter will be handled and investigated by the necessary members of the Order. At no point in time is a Senator to be trying to put us on trial.

So my question in return, Senator, is why are we not allowed to stamp out the seeds of Dark Side corruption where it sprouts?"

 

[Serah Oricion]

Yusan smiled and came into view, his hands crossed behind him as he stood there and spoke. "If i might say something, this was not solely a Jedi operation that was taken out on a planet with no cause to do so. Personally being in the battle i can assure you the pressense there and those injured were only Sith and their thralls. As im sure you know Senator Beswin, the Sith and their Empire are responsible for numerous crime to this very Galaxy the Republic is meant to protect so i ask of you would you rather the Republic's forces and the Jedi, the shield and sword of the Republic in these sort of situations, just sit back and let the sith once more attain their power?" Yusan stared at the Senator, his grin not leaving his face and his eyes unmoving as he stood there with his hands crossed behind him, it was a simple fact and he had been shot up enough to be sure that they were not innocents that died by his hands. His head nodded slowly to @[member="Sarge Potteiger"] as the man spoke and once more Yusan's voice rang out. "I very much agree with you master Jedi..."
@[member="Alena Beswin"]

 

[Terras Zordok]

The Military Oversight Committee members exchanged confused glances when they were connected to a random Jedi (@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]) instead of their targeted reciepients. It was a frightening idea, that a random Jedi had somehow achieved the ability to stop top-priority transmissions from the Senate to the battlefield. Alena decided to not speak on this, however.

Stopping herself from looking annoyed, Alena spoke to the Jedi that had lacked even the decency to introduce himself. "Ah. Great suggestion, yet a flawed one. It appears that much of the Jedi Masters on the council, including the Grandmaster, has left the local temple here to travel to Etti IV. And others that were supposedly to be here were unresponsive."

"And you seem to have misunderstood me, Master Jedi. Trying Jedi is not part of my job, and trust me, I don't have time to do what is outside my job description at the moment. My job as the head of Military Oversight is, however, to be 'concerned with military spending and funding.' And in this case, it concerns me as to how the Jedi's current approach is affecting military spending and funding."

"As unfortunate as it is, we do not have the funding to be a police for the Galaxy. The Jedi have just wasted tax money to send an entire fleet to the Outer Rim. And to what? To spread the growing imperialism of the Republic, master Jedi. And possibly threaten alliances as well..."

The Kuati women then spoke to @[member="Yusan Fenn"]. "Who are you, sir? I'm not sure what position you have in the Republic, or why you were involved at the event at Etti IV at all." she stated. It didn't matter what Fenn's former position was anyways.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"I take it then that you didn't make the effort to simply ask if any Masters were available?" The Jedi said, tone as pleasant as any other; to say he sounded amicable was an understatement.

Probably because he was too amused to care, if he were being honest with himself. "I can see, though, why you're a politician. You're quite good with words, but terrible at listening." He retorts, completely steamrolling any chance for @[member="Yusan Fenn"] to respond to her before he could finish.

"I would suggest, Senator, that considering your status you watch your tone. Disagreeing with Republic policy is alright, but telling the Jedi that they shouldn't pursue the Sith...? Well, that borders on the line of speech harmful to the good of the Republic."

He snorts. "And judging by the AAR sent back by some of the soldiers...", he says, head dipping as he appeared to be reading a datapad. "They never even set foot on the planet. So that tells me the world joined willingly, not by force."

His head lifted. "So, Senator, what I have to say to you is this - stop wasting our time. And if that doesn't matter to you, then stop wasting yours, because you're going to get nowhere with baseless accusations and hearsay. I suggest that, in the future, you give us the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping the gun."

A finger lifted, as though he were about to cut off the transmission. "Oh, and, by the way. It doesn't cost billions to send a fleet out; to build one, yes. Send one into the void? No. Again, stop wasting my karking time."

The link went dead, the conversation with the Jedi was done.

@[member="Alena Beswin"]

 

[Terras Zordok]

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]
A thin smile appeared on the Kuati senator's face as she watched, along with the rest of the committee, this anonymous Jedi talk. She also noted the words such as 'karking' that the Jedi had chosen to use. It seemed people didn't have much in regards to civility within the Senate these days, her conference for a bill proposal a few weeks ago was evidence to that.

Alena watched as the commmunication line went dead. It was interesting that the Jedi had chosen to describe that the committee had been the one to waste the Jedi's time, when it had been exactly the opposite. She exchanged shrugs with other committee members before speaking again.

"Ah, but I was just getting to the best part of this. Most importantly... THE JEDI HAVE BROKEN THE REPUBLIC TREATY WITH THE MANDALROIANS." she said, talking into the already-dead communication line.


"Isn't it interesting how the Jedi bashes through things and leaves it to us politicians to clean up after their mess? Ah, here's a message from the Mandalorians." she announced to her committee, annoyance in her voice.

"Senator's of the Republic, Jedi. Look to your skies. Make note of what you see. This is what happens when you fail to keep your word. Your move on Etti has broken the treaty set up to split the territories that once belonged to the Sith Empire. You will send your leaders to Coruscant space, to join me and my companions to renegotiate the treaty. I do not need to tell what will happen if you do not comply." said a woman's voice. Perhaps a Mandalorian leader, Alena noted. In this time of crisis, negotiations were essential. In the Jedi's pointless hunt to kill every remaining Sith in the Outer Rim, the Republic had possibly lost a vital ally.


"It appears as though the Jedi have wrecked the Republic's relations with your faction. Sincere apologies..." Alena said into the communication channel, in an attempt to continue talks with the annoyed Mandalorian at the other end of the line. (@[member="Mia Monroe"])

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"You should keep a better leash on your pets, an apology is no what I'm after." Mia replied coldly "We are not discussing this via a comm channel."

Mia cut the feed.

 

[Terras Zordok]

Senator of Kuat shrugged once more before smirking to other senators on the Military Oversight Committee. "See what I mean? Look at this mess." the committee head remarked.

Pets, the Mandalorian had called the Jedi. Get a better leash on them, the Mandalorian had suggested. Perhaps it was time for the Republic to do just that.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"What treaty?" was all she got, presumably from the Grandmaster. Then the line went dead again.

 

[Serah Oricion]

Yusan had to force himself to stop from laughing his smile curled up as he remained standing by the Jedi like @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"], his eyes focused on the image of @[member="Alena Beswin"] and @[member="Sarge Potteiger"], his smile curling into grin that showed both amusement and pity. Then, the voice of a mandalorian, his head shook as he now spoke. "What ever treaty this is that you speak of, this does not mean that you bring a Mandalorian into a meeting about the internal affairs of the Republic, what next are we giving them our secrets and our fleet to say 'Sorry for dealing with a sith presence that you failed to watch out for?' because that sounds like what you are trying to tell us." Should someone attempt to cut his communication he would have himself connected through a separate line much like Sarge had, not that he knew who the Jedi was merely just the trick he pulled.

 

[Terras Zordok]

Alena Beswin's committee had long adjourned by the time anyone got around to picking up dead lines, saying a statement or two, then killing the communication line again. The senators were more concerned at the moment with looking up at the Mandalorian ships that had arrived.

The Jedi had acted aggressively and without thought at Etti IV, and the Republic could end up paying the price for the Jedi's rash actions if the Mandalorians chose to go to war with the Republic. Hopefully negotiations would prove successful.

Certainly, Alena expected people to begin blaming the Senate for this, yet it was for a fact that it was entirely the Jedi's fault for the incident.

 

[Serah Oricion]

Upon hearing reports of some moron letting more than one Mandalorian ship into the airspace over the Republic's most important planet AFTER the events of the Graug invasion and multiple attacks on the Senate, Yusan could only wonder how stupid the Senate was becoming. They all could die for what he cared but he had to return home, and now before the Republic made any further mistakes. His head turned to @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] as he spoke before leaving. "I must go master Jedi, it seems that the senate are being held on their own leashes by the Mandalorians, we cant have that now can we."

 

[Carn Dista]

Ah. The infamous blame the Jedi card. Carn often wondered if the senate enjoyed it's backwards logic of harassing the Jedi consistently when they weren't directly in the firing line, but fleeing to them for help and protection when they found themselves in danger. He could never tell. Politicians had amazing ways of being more and more disagreeable every time they expelled air from their lungs.

Considering how a certain senator had decided to so blatantly speak out against the order that had so recently gone to war on behalf of the republic, driven off the graug from coruscant, and near constantly picked up the slack to defend the republic from every threat in existence regardless of how deadly it was, Carn decided that he'd dispatch a Jedi shadow to take a look into her acquaintances. It was filthy, underhanded, and would probably cause more problems than it solved, however the Master of the Order's care cup was sufficiently empty enough for him to disregard the more polite, moral way of dealing with senators in favor of finding out the truth.

And so, picking up his commslink, he contacted @[member="Vulpesen"] for his next assignment - investigating a senator of being in league with the sith. He didn't expect the shadows to bring back any evidence, but it was a little peace of mind to know that someone hellbent on slandering the one set of people that consistantly defend the faction from all manner of mess, including the blatantly soon to be war with the mandalorians was going to be placed under surveillance.


[OOC:
Playing the "hate on the jedi card" so soon? Smooth bro. At this rate that Jedi Coup everyone jokes about will either happen, or become a split where the Jedi have their own faction and watch the republic flounder and die.

Look at the number of jedi compared to non jedi in the faction, and you'll probably realise why its always the Jedi in threads like the dominion this is about.

For the record however, I think that dominion was not only stupid, but a seriously bad idea for the long run.]

 

[Terras Zordok]

Spoiler

(OOC: I've got nothing against the Jedi, I'm simply playing the "this was a totally bad idea for a dominion even for the Jedi to do" card. ^^)

Alena hummed slightly to herself as she worked inside her senatorial office, having finished her latest, eventful meeting with the Military Oversight Committee. She'd be unpopular amongst the Jedi, no doubt, but some politician in the Republic had to stand up against the pathetic excuse for a dominion that took place at Etti IV.

The Kuati woman wondered if the Jedi would suspect her of some sort of outside affiliation. If they ever bothered searching, they'd find nothing ofcourse. Nothing at all. Reason being, there had been legit no connection between Alena and any other outside organization.

Beswin had simply been doing what her job description had her do.

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen relaxed happily in his bed in the temple when his comlink beeped at his waist. "Good. I was getting bored anyways." Taking a look down at the device, Vulpesen's eyebrows rose a little. "Well then, it seems like I've really got some interesting work to do." This was no normal mission. This was seeking out treason and such a charge was not to be taken lightly. Indeed, Vulpesen would take care in and of the matter.

Several secure holocalls later to a certain endearing senator and accomplices, Vulpesen was discreetly delivered the files of the the possible traitor. As thought by @[member="Carn Dista"], there was a large chance that such searches were unnecessary. Because of this, Vulpesen kept a keep ear out and his force aura sharp. Rummaging through the files of a senator was not exactly something that would reflect well on the jedi if he was caught. Searching through her proposals and votes, Vulpesen did what he could to keep an eye on her. It would take a bit of searching, but if there was something to be found, he would see it eventually. All he needed was time.

(OOC: I'm inclined to believe ya @[member="Alena Beswin"], but that's an OOC perspective. Its not like you'll be so easy to convince Vulps IC of that)

 

[Terras Zordok]

(OOC: no problem, its for the saking of RPing)

@[member="Vulpesen"]

Alena gave a sigh as she leaned against her office chair. Who knew? Perhaps there was some Jedi out there researching her records for possible evidence of treason or what-not. It didn't matter to her. In fact, the only legislations that she had ever voted on (she didn't know if it ever came down to voting anyways) was of her own legislation. Senators of the Republic didn't seem very into creating bills, apparently.

She didn't know what the Jedi could do against her, but she didn't care. Trying to find evidence of much of anything against her would be a waste of time.

 

[Vulpesen]

As his eyes scanned through the various files, Vulpesen's eyes caught one name several times. "Lorelei Darke."(AKA @[member="Lady Silencia"]) The queen of Kuat was obviously Beswin's superior and if there was one thing Vulpesen had learned, it was that orders came from on top. If Beswin was associated with the sith, Then this Queen, Lorelei Darke, would be a great place to begin. Already, Vulpesen was scrounging around to find files on how she came into power and every action she had done. Of course, he did the same for Beswin and several of her compatriots, but this woman was one of his top suspects.

 

[Terras Zordok]

Alena looked around her office, glancing at the Holo-Net news flashing on her screen of the Mandalorian fleet had occupied upper levels of Coruscant's airspace. She was quite positive that the Jedi Order would do something, anything, against her since her committee had condemned their actions at Etti IV.She decided to contact Jedi Master @[member="Carn Dista"]. Master of the Order was the most obvious Jedi to contact, Beswin reasoned, with the Grandmaster gone and such.

"Greetings Master Dista, I am Senator Beswin of Military Oversight. I'm afraid my committee's remarks of the actions taken at Etti IV may have upset those in the Jedi Order. I was curious as to whether the Jedi are conducting a search on me or my committee, or anyone else within the Republic that I may be associated with. Please answer honestly, Master Jedi." she spoke into the communication device, curious as to what the Jedi would say in response.

 

[Carn Dista]

@[member="Alena Beswin"]
"Firstly, I have no knowledge of this search you speak of - there is no reason for the Jedi to investigate senators without due cause. Secondly, even if such a search existed, which I assure you, it doesn't, I would not disclose information on Jedi business until it was concluded as a matter of principle." Carn's voice was calmer than an undisturbed body of water. Of course he knew of the investigation - He had ordered it, after all. However he had absolutely no intention of saying otherwise to the senator, and his well measured vocal tone gave absolutely no indication whatsoever that Carn was lying through his beard. "I must point out though, Senator, you sound somewhat paranoid about the Jedi investigating you and your peers. There isn't anything you're hiding that I should know about, is there?"

 

[Terras Zordok]

@[member="Carn Dista"]

Alena smiled politely. "Ah, I shall take your word for it, master Jedi. Thank you for your response." she said simply, carefully taking note of the Jedi's response.

"I have absolutely nothing that I've hidden, or have to hide." she said simply. "I was simply asking you this so that I could remind of the fact that a warrantless search of any Republic citizen's private property would be in direct violation of law. Thank you, again." she said, before turning off her communication device.